I had a bitter-sweet trip to Cartagena this week to pack up our stuff on Matilda and hand her over to our friend, Andy. Unfortunately my Andy isn’t allowed to fly at the moment so my brother very kindly came with me to help. We had two lovely days down there in the bright sunshine, 21 C with that blue, blue Mediterranean sky.

Packing up was pretty miserable. We have masses of stuff aboard as we thought we would be on her for 3 years at least if not longer. I had literally packed the kitchen sink! I did as much as I could but my heart wasn’t really in it and I left Andy B with the problem of where to put the rest. Overboard on the way to the Caribbean I expect!

I know he’ll look after Matilda incredibly well and wish him a fantastic trip back to Australia but, after waving goodbye, I couldn’t help shedding a tear as he left us at the airport to go off on what should have been Our Adventure.

Meanwhile we’ve got a bit of a trip of our own. Not so adventurous perhaps but certainly different, packed with highs and lows, good days and bad days but, hopefully, with the same amazing end! Home and safe.